Sunflower Oatmeal Bread

I'm still playing catch-up.

This bread is adapted from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book. It's called Celeste's Sunflower-Oatmeal Bread, a nod to Hensperger's baking assistant, Celeste, who made the bread. I changed the formula a bit to use more whole wheat flour and less bread flour.

Ingredients
For two loaves
102 g rolled oats (~1 cup)
375 g whole wheat flour (~3 cups)
280 g bread flour (~2 cup)
8 g instant yeast (2 tsp)
12 g salt (2 tsp)

1 cup milk + 1 tbsp cider vinegar (Stir and let sit 5 minutes to emulate buttermilk)
1 cup water
1 egg
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp molasses
½ tbsp honey

70 g bread flour (added during kneading)
90 g raw sunflower seeds

Ingredients

Some bread flour and sunflower seeds left for the end

Bread flour kneaded in

12:05 pm: Sunflower seeds added towards the end of 10 minute kneading

1:39 pm: Good first rise

1:40 pm: Ready for second rise

2:17 pm: Good second rise too

2:34 pm: Rounded, rested and shaped. Total dough weight: 1322 g

3:02 pm: Proofed, slashed and ready for the oven

3:03 pm: Boule in pre-heated cast iron pan

Decently good looking crust after glazing with some butter

Decent crumb

The bread
The bread tasted pretty good. I froze one loaf, the first time I froze a loaf, and it tasted pretty good after thawing.

Notes
Date: October 18, 2011
Recipe: Adapted from Celeste's Sunflower-Oatmeal Bread from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book.

Flours: Whole wheat, bread flour, rolled oats
Bread specific ingredients: Raw sunflower seeds, egg
Sweetener used: Molasses, honey
Liquid: Water, milk + cider vinegar (instead of buttermilk)

Comments: Worth making again, perhaps without bread flour.

-RPH

Wild Rice - Molasses Bread

A month between posts! Let's account that to laziness, busy work life, vacation and move on, shall we?

This bread is from Beth Hensperger's book 'The Bread Bible'. The recipe given is for 2 round loaves. I made two loaves, one of which was the October bread for my father-in-law. I modified the recipe a bit to use more whole wheat flour than bread flour. Also, the book does not provide weights, so below are the amounts I used:

Ingredients
For two rounded loaves

250 g cooked wild rice (about 1½ C )
520 g whole wheat flour
15 g instant yeast (1½ Tbsp)
14 g salt (2 tsp)

47 g light olive oil ( ¼ C)
67 g molasses ( ¼ C)
300 g warm milk (about 1¼ C)
1 C water

260 g bread flour ( + about 13 grams during kneading)

Ingredients

Preparation
Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl. Mix the next four ingredients in another bowl and then add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture. Mix with a spatula.

Bread flour is added last

10:52 am: Very sticky mixture after adding all the ingredients

11:00 am: Ready for first rise

11:36 am: A quick first rise

12:25 pm: A good second rise

The surface of the dough had dried out a little because it had been covered with a cloth instead of a proper lid. So during the final rise (proofing) I covered the shaped loaves with a damp paper towel each before covering them with overturned utensils.

12:28 pm: Split for two loaves

12:32 pm: Ready for proofing

12:56: Proofed well.

1:04 pm: Slashed boule in preheated cast iron pan

1:45 pm: Out of the oven

Cooling.

Sliced well

Wild rice bits are clearly visible in the fairly even crumb

The bread
The bread was pretty good, but I don't remember any details I might have liked to write here.

Notes
Date: October 6, 2011
Recipe: Adapted from Wild Rice - Molasses Bread from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible' book.

Flours: Whole wheat, bread flour
Bread specific ingredients: Cooked wild rice
Sweetener used: Molasses
Liquid: Water, milk

Comments: A good tasting bread.

-RPH